Tuning In: On-air therapy for CSN's Kusnierek

When Trenni Kusnierek talks about sports on television, she allows viewers to escape from their troubles. She also gives herself a break from what’s bothering her.

Kusnierek, 36, appears happy and upbeat on the air as a Comcast SportsNet anchor, so viewers would never know that she battles depression.

“For the most part, I have it under control,” she said. “I don’t think it’s something you ever escape completely. It’s something I have to manage.”

Medication and coping skills help Kusnierek deal with her depression, but being on the air with something to focus on is another antidote.

“The toughest (part), though, is in a commercial break,” she said. “I’m just sitting there. So it’s important for me to talk to my co-anchors to have something to occupy my mind.”

Kusnierek takes an anti-depressant and hasn’t felt any side effects.

“I may in time, at some point, try to go off it,” she said, “but last time I tried, it didn’t go well, and I’ve come to the understanding that this may be something that I have to deal with for the rest of my life. Better to be on medicine and feel good than not be on medicine and feel terrible.”

When her depression is at its worst, she doesn’t want to get out of bed. Early in her sportscasting career in Eau Claire in her home state of Wisconsin, she sat her on couch for two days with the blinds closed. Years later, after she had worked up her way to a position with the MLB Network, she found herself not wanting to leave her apartment. On the subway one day, she suffered a panic attack.

“I was just so anxious all the time,” she said, “and it’s real isolating. You feel if you tell people that, they’re going to think you’re crazy. A lot of people have a misconception. If you tell them something’s wrong, they’ll say, ‘Oh, you’ll feel better, just buck up,’ and, ‘You’ve got this going for you and you’ve got that going for you.’ Absolutely, you do, but it’s a chemical imbalance in your brain, it’s a medical issue. You can’t just buck up.”

Within the past year, Kusnierek has become more comfortable speaking about her depression. She emceed an event for “Families for Depression Awareness” in April at Boston University and spoke about her experiences. She also spoke in Milwaukee at a medical conference and at a mental health facility.

“It’s not easy to talk about something so personal,” she said, “in front of so many people, but the response that I’ve gotten has made it worth it.”

Her mother told her how one of her speaking engagements gave hope to a friend’s sister, who battles depression and has attempted suicide.

After her depression contributed to her exit from the MLB Network, Kusnierek spent January of 2011 tutoring English for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders in an impoverished section of New Delhi, India.

“Obviously, something like that changes your life,” she said. “I would do it again in a heartbeat.”

Running helps calm her symptoms.

“I don’t even run with music,” she said. “It’s just a nice, quiet time for me.”

Since 2004, Kusnierek has run seven marathons, including two in Boston. She qualified to run in this year’s Boston Marathon, but a hamstring injury prevented her from running in it.

“After everything that happened,” she said, “it was really disappointing because running is so important to me.”

She figures she would have finished well before the bombs exploded near the finish line. She’s determined to run in the marathon for charity next year.

But Kusnierek realizes she can’t always run away from what’s troubling her.

“It’s also important,” she said, “not to always busy your mind and not deal with the emotions you’re feeling because it’s important to identify what is causing you to not feel well, what is triggering it at that moment, and figure out how to deal with it as opposed to constantly trying to forget that you’re feeling bad.”

Some people may not want to talk about their depression face-to-face, but Kusnierek has been more than happy to respond to inquiries via email at tkusnierek@comcastsportsnet.com.

“If someone emails me and asks about medicine or treatment or what I went through or advice, there isn’t anyone that I would turn down,” she said.

Kusnierek, a graduate of Marquette, worked as a sports anchor or reporter in Milwaukee and Pittsburgh before landing a job with the MLB Network. She had returned to Milwaukee to work in a number of broadcast jobs, including as sideline reporter for Green Bay Packers preseason games, before joining CSNNE last September.

“I’ve never been happier in a job or a city,” she said. “I love Boston. I think fans are passionate, but intelligent. Obviously, Milwaukee will always be my hometown and I’m still a huge fan of a lot of their teams, but I love Boston. There’s so much energy in the city.”

Trenni, by the way, is her real first name, not a nickname. Her parents named her after a friend named Trinni, but they tweaked it.

“I like to tell people,” Kusnierek said, “that my parents were just pot-smoking hippies and they thought it up. They’re not as fond of that story as I am.”